Our Digital History is History

Posted June 11th, 2009 by Lindsey Reminga

In an article written by Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library, she makes a shocking assertion that in the future, the 21st century may just be a big black hole in our history.

With everyone storing their information online, we tend to casually delete any outdated information and upgrade with the new. So what happens to the old information? Does it disappear forever?

Lynne begins her article with a statement about the United States’ President website. Apparently, all old information on the site is erased forever when a new president comes into office:

“At the exact moment Barack Obama was inaugurated, all traces of President Bush vanished from the White House website, replaced by images of and speeches by his successor. Attached to the website had been a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration – they may never know them now. When the website changed, the link was broken and the booklet became unavailable.”

Whether or not this statement is entirely true, it makes me think about my personal history on the Web. I delete, rewrite, redesign, and reorganize my life on a monthly- sometimes weekly- basis without ever thinking about losing those memories. The social Web of today is an amazing diary of so many people’s lives- How do we store this history of the human personality in 21st century America? Will it continue to be destroyed, and ultimately forgotten in the future?

Workplace Technology Generation Gap

Posted April 24th, 2009 by Albert Banks

Baby Boomers and Generation Y are now cohabitants in the workforce. As Sarah Perez notes in her recent article, the technology gap between the generations at work is “Oh So Wide.” The results of a study released by business information solutions provider LexisNexis are quite illuminating.

Gen Y spends 10.6 hours per day browsing social networks, news sites, blogs, forums, and multimedia sharing sites while Boomers clock in at only 5.6 hours.

A majority (62%) of Gen Y employees interact with a social network while at work, but only a fraction of Boomers do (14%).

A majority of Boomer feel PDAs and mobile phones negatively affect workplace etiquette and don’t believe laptops should be used by participants of in-person meetings. Less than half of Gen Y agrees.

As the complexion of the workplace evolves, will the Boomers change their views or will the younger generations continue to frustrate their bosses? Time will tell.

Pics from Ron’s CAMA Social Media Marketing Presentation

Posted March 23rd, 2009 by Lindsey Reminga

If you missed the presentation, check out the slides @ blog link. Here are a few images captured at the event:

Social Media Marketing – Rethinking Traditional Marketing Plans

Posted March 11th, 2009 by Albert Banks

Slides for Ron’s presentation: Social Media Marketing- Rethinking Traditional Marketing Plans.

Twitter: Micro-Blogging is in our DNA

Posted January 29th, 2009 by Ron Edelen

A good article (unlike this blog post) should have a solid hypothesis–we twit because we crave attention–which generates research (see references), which leads to a well-informed conclusion–micro-blogging is in our DNA. I would love to lay it all out in such an academic fashion, but I have a million hypothesis on the Twitter topic and none of them are conclusive.

We twit because we can.
We crave attention in every facet of our lives.
We know little about one thing, but a lot about everything.
We like knowing that someone might be listening.
We need to share our happiness. Our sadness. Our anger.

Our lives are streaming… and it makes us feel sexy.

There are dozens of discussions about Twitter as a Social media revolution and its use as a marketing tool. Absurd experiments, different strategic opinions and third party tools are popping up everywhere. All of this is backed by the theory that more Brand activity, even if its short nonsense conversation, is better than no activity. Ostensibly unedited, spontaneous conversation is easy and seemingly instinctive for us. It comes naturally and Twitter is the ultimate conduit.

Dennis White presents a strong indifference towards this constant stream of useless nonsense produced through Twitter, claiming that “society individually and collectively suffers for it.” Tina at BSS critiques how the Booklyn Museum might have missed the target by encrypting their feeds and trying to monetize on it (an experimental gimmick). She concludes that Twitter and social media in general is about the conversation, not the message. Some business-centric journals are claiming “expertise” on how this channel [Twitter] is crucial to businesses. Its has personal charm, provides intimacy, revenue opps, etc. If your interested in Dell Outlet’s approach, or toys to add to your Twit-hero utility belt, see references below. I’m not sure how crucial it is or will be. Nonetheless, a little Brand conversation maybe better than none.

Update:
Today’s issue of Shelly Palmer’s self-plugging Media Bytes focuses on how to Tap into Twitter’s Value. Not a fan of the series, but it shows that there is growing Twit buzz at iMedia Connection network. Digital journalist giant Leo Laporte recently ranted about the fact that his Twitter following has not moved in 7 days (a man who has over 80k+ followers), claiming there is something technically wrong with Twitter’s capacity.

References:
Social Media: Top Five Twitter Tools for Business Intelligence
Getting Intimate (with Cusomters) on Twitter